All Hands on Deck: Bringing Together High School Teachers and Adjunct Instructors for Professional Development in the Teaching of Writing

in June of 2012, two Writing Program Administrators (WPAs) at Rhode Island College collaborated on a one-day professional development opportunity for adjunct instructors of First Year Writing. One of the WPAs was Director of the Rhode Island Writing Project; the other was the Director of Writing. Each saw an opportunity to further the reach of their program and better the quality of instruction in the K-16 landscape of Rhode Island. And, each program was facing real challenges institutionally, politically, and financially. In this article, the two authors outline the exegesis that led to their collaboration and the outcome of that collaboration. They conclude that opportunities for such collaboration--among adjunct faculty and the institutions they represent--while not new, are underutilized. They call for more such professional development opportunities as state- and college-wide mandates are implemented on campuses nationwide